April 17, 2024

Quarter 2 Newsletter, 2024

Dear Luther Classical Supporter,

Greetings in Christ!

We hope you are having a joyous Easter season celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. We at the college enjoyed a nice rest as we finished yet another exciting quarter of LCC’s historic founding. 

We would like to thank you for your commitment to our work. Building a classical Lutheran college is an opportunity that comes around only once every few generations. The last LCMS college to be founded was Concordia Ann Arbor in 1964. Sixty years later, the clarion call for Lutherans to build a new faithful Lutheran college is now clearer than ever. 

Classical Lutheran education focuses on the formation of Christians. Christians raise their children in the church, lead family devotions, talk about Jesus, and cling to His forgiveness. They prioritize the treasures God gives over the treasures the world gives. We need colleges that instruct the hearts of our youth to love eternal treasures that no one can ever take away from them. “Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also” (Matthew 6:21). This is why we are building Luther Classical College and why you so generously support it. In a manner of speaking, we are selling all we have to purchase a field where that eternal treasure is found. Through your support, LCC will cultivate the hearts and minds of our youth with the Gospel. 

By God’s grace, we are inching closer and closer each quarter toward the realization of this goal. Just the other night President Harold Ristau arrived in Casper from Kenya with his family as he prepares to lead LCC to its long-anticipated destination of becoming operational by the Fall of 2025. Besides his warm welcome by our current local leadership and community, President Ristau also has the first components of a functioning institution at work ahead of him. 

To start, our Academic Dean, Dr. MacPherson, completed LCC’s Academic Catalog earlier this year. This catalog is replete with, among other things: 

• student application and admissions details;
• a strong theological confession;
• LCC’s educational philosophy;
• course descriptions; and
• institutional partnership details. 

With this catalog, LCC has been able to begin its inaugural admissions season. The first student applications for LCC admissions were received between February 21 and March 20 by “gap student” applicants, i.e. students taking time off between high school and college. After a thorough review process, including video interviews, our first eight applicants have now been accepted to Luther Classical College for the Fall of 2025. 

We couldn’t be more pleased with our applicants. They are pious, smart, well-spoken, and filled with godly optimism about the future. We thank God that this new phase of our development is off to such a great start! Students will accept admission by May 1. The next application window begins August 1, and another on January 1, 2025. More can be learned on pages 10 and 11 of the Academic Catalog. 

We have also been blessed with a few key hires this past winter for admissions and beyond: 

• Miss Arika Kleinschmidt of Madison, WI (Admissions Coordinator);
• Mr. William Gottwalt of Laramie, WY (Business Manager/Registrar/Librarian);
• Mrs. Rebekah Bennick of Casper, WY (Chief Financial Officer);
• Mr. Asa Hoffman of Portland, OR (Development Officer);
• Dr. and Mrs. Timothy Rossow of Ocean Shores, WA (Missions Ambassador). 

Our next big step is bringing on a full time Admissions Director, who will take over much of the work Dr. MacPherson has been doing for admissions. Until now, he and Miss Kleinschmidt have made outstanding headway, most notably with our “gap year” student applicants. 

We thank God for the wonderful work all these men and women do for our team. God has very much blessed us with high professionalism, enthusiasm, and faithfulness to God’s Word. This team will be key in supporting the College and President Ristau’s leadership moving forward. 

And of course we would be nowhere without all our faithful supporters. LCC continues to be blessed with support from around 1,000 individual Lutherans and now over 170 congregations. And now a new scholarship opportunity has been designed for congregations seeking to support LCC students from their congregations. 

Tier I Scholars’ Congregations can donate $5,000 to LCC between July 2024 and June 2025 to qualify their students for a 10% discount in their first year’s tuition costs. 

Tier II Scholars’ Congregations can donate $2,500 to LCC between July 2024 and June 2025 to qualify their students for a 5% discount in their first year’s tuition costs. 

These scholarships are worked into our budget and will continue each year in an effort to provide as much common initiative between Lutheran congregations and LCC students as possible. Of course, the common bond among us will remain the pure Gospel of our Lord Jesus, for whose sake we pursue this founding and pray that God will continue to bless it. With that, we remain especially thankful for all our Supporting Congregations at every level. 

Our grass roots enthusiasm has done wonders in providing for our annual needs and has enabled us to commit special focus to our campus build-out. Funding and arrangements for student housing remains our top priority. By God’s grace we will continue to make the advancements needed to bring this historic college to fruition. 

God bless you for walking with us on this exciting journey to build Luther Classical College. God has been answering our prayers, guiding and instructing us daily along the way. 

May the triumph of Jesus’ resurrection continue to provide you comfort throughout this Easter season, even as we participate in it daily throughout the year in repentance and faith as baptized children of God. 

To read our Academic Catalog in full, please visit www.lutherclassical.org/academic-catalog or email support@lutherclassical.org to receive a hard copy sent to you.